{"id":670290,"date":"2026-05-15T02:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/670290\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T02:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:58:08","slug":"canada-is-welcome-to-join-eurovision-says-song-contest-director-eurovision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/670290\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada is welcome to join Eurovision, says song contest director | Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canada is welcome to join Eurovision<\/a> if it wishes, its director has said, months after the country revealed it wanted to \u201cexplore\u201d joining the song contest in its federal budget.<\/p>\n

Eurovision director Martin Green told the BBC<\/a> on Wednesday that Canada hadn\u2019t yet applied, but would be welcome to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Mark Carney<\/a> wants to sort of embrace Europe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will welcome anyone through those doors who wants to share the values of this wonderful occasion and stand on our stage with friends,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, Eurovision is mainly a showcase for European talent but it is open to countries with broadcasting organisations that are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Canada\u2019s national broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is not a full member, but is eligible as an \u201cassociate member\u201d.<\/p>\n

The only associate member ever approved to join Eurovision is Australia, which was granted permission to enter in 2015 due to the contest being hugely popular there.<\/p>\n

The CBC has confirmed it has sent staff to this year\u2019s contest as \u201cobservers\u201d.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s prime minister, Mark Carney, first raised the idea of Canada joining the song contest in November in his 2025 federal budget<\/a> \u2013 yet another sign of his government\u2019s strategic realignment away from the US and towards Europe.<\/p>\n

A single line tucked in the nearly 500-page document revealed the government was working with CBC to \u201cexplore participation in the Eurovision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two government sources told the CBC that Carney \u2013 who spent years studying and living in the UK, most recently as the governor of the Bank of England \u2013 was personally involved<\/a> in Canada\u2019s push.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a platform for Canada to shine,\u201d the country\u2019s finance minister, Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne said in November<\/a>. \u201cThis is about protecting our identity \u2013 yes, we want to protect our sovereignty, but you also want to help people in the arts sector and in the film industry to make sure they can shine around the world. And we have a lot to offer as Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada has mulled<\/a> participating in the song contest before; in 2022, the CBC ruled out the idea after deciding it was \u201cprohibitively expensive\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Canada has never formally participated in Eurovision, the contest has hosted an array of Canadian artists. Most famously was C\u00e9line Dion, who won the contest for Switzerland in 1988 with the song Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi. In 2001, Natasha St-Pier represented France, as did<\/a> La Zarra in 2023.<\/p>\n

Contestants do not have to be citizens of the country they are representing, although some participating countries do mandate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada is welcome to join Eurovision if it wishes, its director has said, months after the country revealed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75],"class_list":["post-670290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}